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F I S C A L I M P A C T R E P O R T

SPONSOR SEC

ORIGINAL DATE

LAST UPDATED

2/13/2007

3/11/2007 HB

SHORT TITLE

Health Program Cultural Competence Education

SB 600/SECS

ANALYST Moser

APPROPRIATION (dollars in thousands)

Appropriation

Recurring

or Non-Rec

Fund

Affected

FY07

FY08

NFI

(Parenthesis ( ) Indicate Expenditure Decreases)

SOURCES OF INFORMATION

LFC Files

Responses Received From

NM Department of Higher Education (HED)

NM Medical Board

Department of Health (DOH)

Office of Indian Affairs

SUMMARY

Synopsis of Bill

The Senate Education Committee substitute for Senate Bill 600 would create a task force on

cultural competence that shall study and make recommendation on specific cultural competence

curricula for each health-related education fields offered in New Mexico’s public post-secondary

educational institutions. Findings shall be made in a final report to the governor, legislature and

the presidents of the public post-secondary educational institutions by December 15, 2007.

SIGNIFICANT ISSUES

According to the New Mexico Medical Review Association (NMMRA) cultural competence is

the ability of systems to provide care to patients with diverse values, beliefs, and behaviors

including tailoring delivery of care to meet patients' social, cultural, and linguistic needs. The

ultimate goal is a health care system and workforce that can deliver the highest quality of care to

every patient, regardless of race, ethnicity, cultural back ground, or English proficiency."

Senate Bill 600/SECS – Page

2

According to this Act, culturally competent health curricula should include the following:

•

Cross-cultural communication

•

Culturally and linguistically appropriate health policy consideration

•

Exploration of health beliefs and explanatory models

•

Culturally competent health care delivery

•

Health disparities, privilege, and equity factors in the health system

•

Culturally and linguistically competent care supported by policy, administration, and

practice

OTHER SUBSTANTIVE ISSUES

HED points out that NMMRA and New Mexico’s Medicare Quality Improvement Organization

in 2005 launched an initiative designed to eliminate health care disparities by helping primary

care physicians serving Medicare beneficiaries to assess and improve their skills in providing

culturally and linguistically competent care for diverse and changing New Mexico populations.

The Office of Minority Health Resources Center (OMHRC) has created national standards on

Culturally and Linguistically Appropriate Services (CLAS). The above initiative has adopted

these standards. The 14 standards are organized by themes: culturally competent care (standards

1-3), language access services (standards 4-7), and organizational supports for cultural

competence (standards 8-14).

These standards could be used as a framework for structuring a series of course work in New

Mexico so that this issue is approached from both the educational and working professional

an

gles.

GM/mt